Retention Bonus for Bus Drivers

Keith Prince: In what way does your 14 February 2020 announcement of a retention bonus for TfL Bus Drivers reduce Driver Fatigue, which, as you know, is the issue on which Unite the Union is currently balloting its London Bus Driver members for possible strike action?

The Mayor: In itself, it doesn’t. They are separate issues and should be treated as such.
However, what they have in common is that both the retention bonus and the work to reduce driver fatigue have a role to play in making a career as a London bus driver more attractive. The retention scheme will help keep one of the best bus networks in the world supplied by skilled and highly-dedicated drivers. It will reward staff to stay beyond the two- and three-year marks where there can be high turnover rates, and it will build on the London Professional Wage and the License for London schemes.
Fatigue is a more complex issue for which there is no easy fix and which requires all members of the bus industry to play their part. A key aspect will be bus operators putting fatigue management systems in place, providing supportive training to staff and acting on the independent research that Transport for London (TfL) has commissioned into this area.
TfL is leading the UK in addressing these issues and will be sharing its experiences with other transport authorities and bodies like the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), so they can adapt these approaches to other parts of the UK. From this spring, TfL also plans to launch its £0.5 million Bus Innovation Challenge to incentivise operators to do more in this area.